Mother Nature Postponed The Game, But Not A Fun Evening
Posted
Roger Grossman, Lake City Radio-
The strong line of storms that roared through northern Indiana Friday evening put an early end to most of the high school football games north of Kokomo. That didn't mean the night was over, however. Not yet anyway. By rule, when game officials see lightning, they stop the action and someone starts a stop watch. There must be a 30-minute gap between the last flash of lightning and the teams resuming their warm-up to play. So with every bolt-and-boom ... that “someone” hits the reset button on the stop watch. And Friday, their thumb got a workout. And the waiting began. I was covering the Warsaw-Plymouth game at the Rockpile in Plymouth, so I watched players and coaches from both teams hustle into the nearby high school to wait things out. Some fans joined them inside (which is the wisest move), but others decided to ride it out in their vehicles. However, for 13 people there was no place to go and no where to hide. Yep, the press box can be a very lonely place. It was me, my broadcast partner Rob Reneker and our Social Media Director Nick Prentice, Times-Union Sports Editor Dale Hubler, the scoreboard operators, the Rockies' stat crew and the Plymouth radio broadcasters. And so ... we just kinda hung out for a while. Longtime public address announcer, assistant athletic director and all-around good-dude John Scott was well-prepared for the delay. He had close to an hour's worth of music all lined up and ready to roll – each song with a reference to rain and storms (everything from Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head to It's Raining Men). Plus, the conversation was fantastic. We talked about everything from the fact the Cubs game was delayed by the storm Friday but it never rained there, to journalistic ethics (ask me some other time), to how crazy we were for still being up there. Remember, we are perched in a metal-roofed press box mounted on metal bleachers with two light poles on either side. There were a few prayers being said, too, by the way. And then came the moment of the night. A call came up to Scott that the game official nearest the chain gang had left his clip for the down markers on the chain, and Mr. Scott was instructed to go get it. You read right ... go get it ... outside ... in the rain ... and the lightning. And he did! The other 12 people in the press box watched with our hearts in our throats as John made his way right out through the middle of the field, unclipped the tag, and strolled back up the metal bleachers to the relative safety of press row. The lightning knows better than to take on John Scott! About 90 minutes after the game was stopped, we got the word from inside the school that they were giving in for the night and that the game would resume at 2 p.m. Saturday. Good call. So we got out of our precarious position at the peak of the seating area and headed for our cars to make our way home through the leftover raindrops. The game was unfinished, but it was hardly a wasted evening. Truthfully, if you have to get stuck in a storm with a group of people ... that's a pretty good group to be stuck with. Thanks boys for a fun evening of doing very little ... except praying.
